The Sports Doc Chalk Talk

Summer sports are just around the corner, and before you know it millions of kids across the country will be playing baseball, softball, soccer, and a host of other sports. Most youth sport leagues are run by volunteer coaches and administrators, and officiated by amateur referees who might be paid a nominal fee for their efforts.  Obviously your son or daughter is not playing professional sports, yet there should be a few minimal expectations you should have from the umpires, referees, and other officials that work your child’s games.

First, keep in mind that most youth sport officials do a really good job — they show up on time, work hard to be fair in their judgments, and attend to potentially dangerous situations in a timely manner.  Still, there are always going to be some officials who don’t do the job they are expected to do, resulting in a less-than-optimal experience for your child.  So what expectations should you have for officials this summer?  Below are a few quick thoughts to consider:

• Hustle. Sports officiating requires hustle, and officials know this going into the job.  Of course, you should be reasonable with your expectations (especially on those really hot summer days), but you should expect that officials are doing all that they can to make the right calls on the field.
• Wrong calls vs. bad calls. Wrong calls are made when an official doesn’t understand the rules of the game (which should not happen very often).  In these instances try and make your point to the official in a tactful way, and not in a manner designed to embarrass or humiliate the official.  Bad calls, however, happen more regularly — these are the types of judgements that happen in a moments notice and are sometimes missed by officials.  Try to be more tolerant in these instances, as even professional officials make mistakes (after all, we’re all human).
• Fairness. Good officials treat both teams the same – with dignity and respect.  You should not see the official going over to one team during a game and joking around and giving the impression of playing favorites – instead, good officials make it a point to stay objective and measured in the ways in which they interact and communicate with both teams competing.
• Responding to dangerous situations. Good officials will keep an eye out for potentially dangerous situations and immediately respond to injuries on the field when they occur.  Of course, you should not expect the official to provide medical attention to an injured player, but he/she should have an emergency protocol to follow (like knowing who to call) for when injuries occur.

Make sure to do your part this summer by showing respect to officials, and thanking them for all the hard work they do so that kids can have a safe, fun, and meaningful sports experience.  Also make sure to be patient and understanding for when bad calls are made (as they will be), and try to remember how difficult a job it is to be perfect with judgement calls (like calling balls and strikes in baseball and softball).  Sports officials don’t usually make much money for their hard work, and they are often under-appreciated — making it even that much more important to tell them “thanks” for all they do!

www.drstankovich.com

Check out Advanced Human Performance Systems for high-performance products and information designed for student athletes, parents, and coaches!

There is a delicate balancing act between integrity and success when it comes to sports fans and their desire to align themselves with a sports winner.  On the conservative side of the argument, it appears that some fans will tolerate very little from coaches/programs that lie, cheat, and break every rule of integrity in their quest to become a winner.  In these instances, the fan base believes that winning should come a distant second to “doing it the right way,” implying that playing by the rules is paramount to a credible sports program.  On the other side of this argument is the “win-at-all-costs” type of fan who could care less about playing by the rules as long as the team wins.  Rules, ethics, and sportsmanship are merely words to these fans, as the only thing that is really important is winning.

The reality is most people actually fall in between these two polar opposites – meaning most fans would like to win and play by the rules, but if the rules need to be tweaked a little (or conveniently overlooked) it’s still OK if the team is winning.  In some cases, sports fans feel the need to align themselves with a winner so much so that they will put on convenient blinders when their team/program gets in trouble.  The most recent example of this behavior is at Arkansas where Head Football Coach Bobby Petrino is catching fire for his less-than-professional behavior involving an extramarital affair with a 25 year old office staffer.  Conservative fans have already called for his resignation, while “win-at-all-cost” fans have minimized the incident as Petrino has proven to be a pretty good football coach on the field.  In fact, there have already been rally’s in Arkansas to save Petrino’s job!

The big question I have is why is there such an incredible desire by some sports fans to be a part of a winning program, so much so that many will completely overlook, disregard, challenge facts, or even fool themselves into thinking “nothing happened” when many of these stories break?  The urge is so strong to be aligned with a winner that these fans will not only tolerate, but even accept behaviors from their coach and athletic program that they would never tolerate or accept from a family member, friend, or employer.  But when it comes to sports, we commonly hear things like “It was no big deal,” or “Look at what other programs do.”  In some cases these fans even justify the crimes in their mind, pointing to the unjust system as the reason why it’s OK to break rules.

From a sport psychology vantage point, it makes perfect sense that we as people strive to be the best, and aligning ourselves with people and programs that exemplify excellence also makes sense.  The problem, however, is when this urge to be the best contaminates our objective, logical, and fair thinking — sometimes so much that we lose our own sense of what’s right and wrong in our efforts to defend “the winner.”  For example, take any one of the NCAA problems that have surfaced over just the past year alone.  If you were a fan of one of these schools, there is a good chance you minimized (or even outright dismissed) the “crimes” that were reported.  But how would you have reacted if the same thing happened at another school? Or how would you have reacted if the same crimes occurred at your rival school? Would you have reacted the same way?  Honestly?  Do you think the Arkansas fan base supporting Coach Petrino right now would think the same, no-problem-here way if these same circumstances happened at another rival SEC school?  I don’t think so, and neither do you.

My point here is to not to push a high and mighty position of moral authority, but to challenge sports fans to think about the relationship they have between winning and doing it the right way.  Where do you draw the line?  If you happen to be from the “who cares” so long as we win camp, is this the same set of values you would want your kids to espouse?  And if you are from the “win the right way” camp, have you set your standards so high that they are impossible to live by?

www.drstankovich.com

Spring sports means sports performance apps, and we have them plenty to choose from – learn more at Advanced Human Performance Systems!

With the NFL Bounty-Gate in the news, it prompted me to think about sports aggression and the differences between healthy, competitive hitting versus violent and illegal physical play.  The New Orleans Saints organization is paying a big price (especially head coach Sean Payton) for the bounties that were set by previous defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, yet some are arguing that the hits would have been just the same regardless whether they were done to receive bounty money or not.  After all, this is the NFL and aggression comes part and parcel with football, right?  Actually, sport psychologists identify two types of sports aggression, presenting an entirely different view of what may have happened in New Orleans.

For sports parents, this is a great opportunity to teach kids about how violence and aggression play into sports, including the differences between healthy and unhealthy aggression.  The two types of aggression commonly seen in sports, instrumental and hostile, are broken down in more detail below:

Instrumental Aggression

This type of legal aggression occurs in sports when an athlete is in pursuit of winning and playing within the competitive spirit of the game. The aggression, in actuality, is needed and used in order to make plays, stop the opponent, and ultimately win games.  This type of aggression is not designed to hurt players, or purposely knock opponents out of the game to make it easier to win. One way to think of this instrumental aggression is to think of the aggression as helpful, and not intentionally harmful.

Some examples of instrumental aggression would include a hockey player checking another player in order to get to a loose puck, a basketball player using his body to position for a rebound, or a baseball pitcher pitching inside to gain better control of the plate.

Hostile Aggression

This type of aggression differs from instrumental aggression in that the sole intention of hostile aggression is to hurt another player.  In these instances, the aggression is not directed at scoring points or tackling a player, but instead purposely designed to physically hurt another player. When you see a cheap shot in sports, most likely it’s an example of hostile aggression.  In  New Orleans, the aggression could be called hostile aggression as bounties are designed exclusively to “knock guys out.”

Helping Your Child Understand Sports Aggression

So how does your child stack up?  If she plays hard and within the rules of the game, then she is likely displaying instrumental aggression.  On the other hand, if your kid engages in aggression that clearly is designed to hurt another player, it’s likely he is using hostile aggression.  Of course, there are fine lines between these types of aggression, and the distinctions get even more blurred when you factor in the intimidation factor that plays in to many sports (like when a pitcher hits a batter intentionally to gain back the plate, opposed to simply “pitching inside”).  Still, most types of hostile aggression are easy to identify and usually result in penalties and suspensions when they occur.

In all likelihood, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell probably factored in the type of aggression displayed when he made his final decision with the New Orleans Saints.  In his mind, he saw the aggression as purposeful and designed to hurt players (and possibly end careers) — and how that type of aggression steers away from the competitive spirit of football.

Talk to your kids about the different types of aggression in sports, and reinforce instrumental aggression while calling out harmful and unhealthy hostile aggression.

www.drstankovich.com

Working in sports, I often hear stories about “out of control” sports parents — in fact, I have even seen a few as clients over the years (The Parents Playbook).  Usually what I hear are stories about parents yelling obscenities from the stands, with the occasional push/shove incident that (thankfully) ends quickly and before any physical harm occurs. Bad stories, yes; but they hardly compare to the attack that took place in Massachusetts last Friday — a melee so violent it left behind beat up coach with a chunk of his ear bitten off. Timothy Lee Forbes has been charged with beating up the winning coach, and biting part of his ear off — all this over a game.

Unfortunately this is not the worst story I have ever heard – the tragic “hockey dad fight” that resulted in a man being killed over a youth hockey game in 2000 is my watershed moment for when sports hit rock-bottom.   I remember thinking back then about what youth sports were becoming, and the fears I had that a new threshold had been established pertaining to sports anger. Since then, aggression at youth sporting events has become so normalized that we hardly react to many of the ugly stories we hear.

When I played youth sports in the 1970′s and 80′s, the worst thing I ever witnessed was an occasional rude remark from the crowd (generally over an obvious blown call by the referee), or a momentarily angry coach who might grumble a profanity under his breath. I never saw a fight, and I can’t remember even seeing an argument that looked like it might turn into a fight.  Sports were fun and people seemed to “get it,” as evidenced by their appropriate fan etiquette.

Sadly, it seems we have become desensitized to youth sport aggression these days.  Similar to how school shootings rarely make the front page of the news, neither does the violence in youth sports that results in serious injury, and sometimes even death.

Sport psychologists often help athletes with developing mental toughness, but perhaps the bigger task is to recalibrate the climate at youth sports so that violence will not be tolerated by administrators, coaches, parents, or players.  The recent fight that occurred in Springfield should serve as a reminder of how far out of whack things have gotten over the years, and inspire us to prevent aggression and violence at youth sports games in the future.

Help create a positive and safe culture in your league with Sport Success 360!

www.drstankovich.com

Millions of kids each year compete in youth and interscholastic sports, and there are many different reasons why they elect to devote their time and energy to playing on a sports team (Sport Success 360).  For some, they play sports to be with their friends, while others enjoy the identity that comes with wearing a sports uniform and being part of a team.  The main reason kids play sports, however, is actually a pretty simple one – to have FUN!

Every research study I have ever read has clearly shown that the number one reason kids play sports is to have fun, and, as you might have guessed, the number one reason why kids voluntarily quit playing sports is when they no longer have fun.  Interestingly, while many adults might guess that “winning” is a big reason why kids play sports, in most cases it doesn’t even make the top ten lists of the polls surveyed.

As adults, we sometimes forget this most basic lesson about why kids play sports, and the result of our oversight can lead to a less-than-exciting experience for kids.  When adults make youth sports a very serious experience and at the cost of having fun, kids often lose their motivation for playing – and usually quit a lot sooner as a result.  Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to think about the many ways in which you as a parent or coach can make youth sports a fun (and meaningful) experience for kids:

• Bring your “A-Game” when it comes to attitude and emotion!  When you get excited about sports, kids will, too.
• Make sure to keep sports interesting and find ways to offer your positive reinforcement and hearty praise whenever possible — even if it’s just for effort.
• Balance instruction with fun, especially with the younger kids you coach.
• Laugh and have a sense of humor.
• Ask the team what things you can do that would make the sport experience exciting for them – you may not be able to do everything they suggest, but if there’s an idea or two you can make it happen it can really make a difference!
• Do fun team bonding things outside of sports if you can – like taking the team to a college or professional sports game, or establishing team dinners.
• Create a team identity the kids can be proud of, maybe a team nickname or a slogan that matches your team’s character.

Obviously there are many different things that you can do to make sports a fun experience for kids, so be sure and do your part and capitalize on the number one reason they play – TO HAVE FUN!!

The Parents Playbook is a great resource for helping kids maximize the sport experience – pick up your copy today!

www.drstankovich.com

In all my years of being around sports, I cannot ever recall witnessing what happened in Columbus (OH) over the weekend.  As a Columbus resident, it has been no secret that our local NHL team (Blue Jackets) have struggled terribly since entering the league over a decade ago.  Since the franchise first entered the league they have only made it to the playoffs once (losing the to Red Wings 4-0), and have been one of the worst teams in the league annually in the years before and after that sole playoff appearance.  Apparently, some fans have had enough, as evidenced by a recent protest designed to prompt ownership to oust the guys working in the front office argued to be responsible for the ongoing losing culture.  Talk about one hot mess.

The Columbus Blue Jackets (CBJ as they are known to local folk) have been one of the worst franchises in sports history when you compare their futility against other traditionally bad NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL teams.  The CBJ have made coaching and front office changes, as well as player personnel changes, yet still finish each regular season as one of the worst teams in the league. Some fans have clearly had enough.

The CBJ are certainly not the only losing franchise in pro sports, and there have been many other teams from the big four (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL) who have had longer losing stretches.  The Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, New York Rangers, Cleveland Browns, and LA Clippers are teams that immediately come to mind when thinking about long droughts of sport futility (although some of these teams have since won championships).  Still, I cannot ever remember fans assembling outside an arena to try and bring a front office down in this manner.  This move, of course, prompts many questions around professional sport franchises and their cultural and potential fiduciary responsibilities (if tax payers are involved in financing the team and/or venue).

In the case of the CBJ, do fans have the right to protest?  And is the current streak of futility entirely the responsibility of the current management team?  And perhaps most importantly – should ownership tune in and listen to what some of the fan base is up in arms about?

In defense of the fans who protested this weekend, it’s easy to see why they assembled – over a decade later and the CBJ have  consistently been one of the worst teams in professional sports.  On the other hand, sports owners know that making quick GM, coach, and player changes isn’t always the answer, either.  Of course, one thing cures all of this – winning.

In these tough financial times the CBJ have witnessed a declining fan base who attend games, and the “branding” of the team around town is almost invisible.  There certainly isn’t a “hockey feel” around central Ohio, which may be the cause of some of the team’s problems — or maybe it is a result of their losing ways.

The fans have spoken, and now it’s time to see what, if anything, ownership will do to appease the growing number of people who are fed up with the CBJ and their losing ways.  Will the team stick with their current team and management, or blow everything up and start from scratch (again)?  Interestingly, there’s an even bigger concern to think about that may play into all of this — that is, does the team even need to win in order to be successful? As hard as it might be to believe, some professional sports franchises have done quite well over the years even though they rarely win (the Chicago Cubs are a perfect example).  Granted, losing teams who maintain a strong fan base are the exception and not the rule, but it will be interesting to watch the coming months to see if the CBJ are serious about winning, or instead content to remain a professional team with a “punchers chance” of making the playoffs every couple of years.

www.drstankovich.com

Over the weekend an interesting article ran in the New York Times (How Big Time Sports Ate College Life), highlighting the growing concerns that college sports, especially football and to a lesser degree basketball, are quickly becoming the focal point of many of America’s finest institutions.  The article asserts that increasingly more students are choosing their college primarily based on the success of the football program, often overlooking the supposed real attraction of why people should go to college in the first place – for the the academics. The colleges, on the other hand, seem happy to acquiesce by spending millions of dollars on athletics, as well as building bigger and fancier sport venues.   The question, however, is the same one that seems to come up time and time again — that is, what are American colleges these days, institutions of higher learning or sports entertainment (with some academics on the side)?  Sport and society within the realm of college in America has never been so interesting to dissect.

Reasons to Continue Spending Big $$$ on College Sports

The biggest arguments for the rapid and continued growth of college sports include:

A) they generate excitement, and therefore attract more students, and

B) they generate revenue.

There is no disputing that college athletics can do both of these things, but these arguments become more interesting the deeper you delve into them…

With respect to generating excitement, it seems as though college sports have always done this, even before all the big money. In fact, at Duke, the Cameron Indoor Stadium holds less than 10,000 fans, yet is still one of the most exciting places in America to catch a game.  Interestingly, Duke has decided to not expand their venue over the years and instead keep it small by today’s standards, essentially losing millions of dollars each year as a result.  This is very different than most colleges today who routinely add as many seats as possible in order to generate every last potential dollar.

The truth is that even when college sports were not so glitzy and glamorous, students still went nuts and supported their respective teams fiercely — and students in the past still wanted to go to big-name universities even before they dumped tens of millions more dollars into their programs.

The Costs of “Selling Out”

When it comes to generating more revenue by bulking up an athletic department, it’s hard to argue that bigger college sport investments usually equal bigger college sport revenues.  The problem, however, are the costs associated with what some would call “selling out” in order to make every last buck.  What are the consequences with students, professors, and alumni who feel the academic pursuit and standards have been terribly compromised just in order to have a better football team?  And how must professors feel when college presidents justify huge coaching salaries by gushing over the money their football coaches bring in, when in fact professors (who make pennies on the dollar in salary compared to coaches) often bring in big bucks of their own to the university through research grants?

Why Not Gambling Casinos, too?

Continuing on with the argument about the good in endlessly dumping money into college athletics is the question of the ‘ole “slippery slope.”  As it becomes more and more clear that colleges seem to be willing to do almost anything to have a good football team, what’s next?  Would placing gambling casinos next to the football stadium be such a bad idea?  Wouldn’t they guarantee revenue if a college decided to put a few around campus?  Gambling is legal in most states today, it generates excitement, and offers odds that only the house can win!

Will We Ever Go Back?

It will be interesting to see if any college presidents in the future decide to put a halt on the growth of college athletics while re-emphasizing that colleges are about academics first and foremost.  Critics have argued that it will be impossible to “put the genie back in the bottle,” and they may be right.  Still, many people would like to see college priorities go back toward emphasizing and supporting academic pursuits before athletic endeavors, even if the odds of this happening appear bleak.

My guess is that the current model of prioritizing athletics before academics in terms of spending will not change until it absolutely has to, and it’s hard to say when that will happen.  In all likelihood, something will eventually happen — some watershed moment where reasonable minds will prevail and begin to discuss going back to a pecking order that more reflects what the word “university” was meant to be.  I say this as I suspect there will eventually be a backlash by university professors, administrators, and students at some point, perhaps through social media efforts to unite or some other concerted way to illustrate their unhappiness with their perceived devaluing of academics.  Will the money in athletics become the primary focus of universities in the future, or will see a shift back to prioritizing academics first?

www.drstankovich.com

Parents always want the best for their kids involved in sports, especially when it comes to playing time and the ways their child is used within the team structure.  So it goes without saying that there will always be some degree of dispute between what parents think the coach should do, and what the coach decides to do based on his or her coaching evaluations.  In most cases, upset parents keep their opinions to themselves – but sadly, this is not always the case, as evidenced by a breaking story about a high school basketball team in Michigan.

Regarding this latest story where head coach Wayne Gigante stepped down from his high school coaching position, it’s impossible for us to know all the reasons that led to his decision.  Maybe the parents were out of line, maybe his coaching style had inherent problems, or maybe it was simply a bad combination of both.  Regardless, there has been a disturbing trend in American youth sports for many years now, one that illustrates the powerful influence some angry parents can have on a team — even to the extent of pushing coaches out.

Assuming Gigante didn’t do anything out of line and was simply trying to use his coaching judgements to get the most out of his players, it’s sad to see him leave because of parental interference.  Gigante seemingly reached his “tipping point,” where the enjoyment he got out of coaching kids eventually became outweighed by some parents who lost sight of the effort, dedication, and complexities involved in being a coach.  As we all know, it’s a lot easier to “coach from the sidelines” than it is to actually be the one on the front line having to make the tough decisions.

Each year we see fewer adults want to go into coaching, as evidenced by the rapidly shrinking number of teachers who want to coach.  In just the last 20 years alone, we have seen a dramatic spike in the number of non-teacher coaches (over 70% of high school coaches today), prompted by the fact that schools in America simply cannot find teachers in the building who find the job of coaching worthwhile when considering all that comes with it.  Sadly, if more stories like the Michigan basketball story emerge in the future, there may be even fewer people (teacher-coaches and non-teacher coaches alike) interested in coaching.  This is a terrible concern for Athletic Directors nationwide, trust me.  With fewer adults interested in coaching, more schools will be forced to consider the unthinkable – the possibility of cutting the athletic team altogether.

Unfortunately, too many parents today are unaware of this changing landscape and the reasons why fewer adults are going into coaching.  Instead, there seems to be a modern-day template for some parents that presumes some kind of “ownership” over the team and the decisions that the coach makes.  The pressure from parents can be overt in nature (i.e. yelling obscenities from the stands), or covert (i.e. creating some behind-the-scenes backlash against the coach).  In either case, it creates a toxic coaching environment.

It’s unfortunate when good coaches are pushed out because of uninformed and/or irresponsible parents, but it’s also becoming more of the norm.  Interscholastic coaches don’t make much money coaching — they go into coaching for the love of the job.  Sadly, when the “fun” element gets removed (like in Michigan high school story), many good people decide to walk away as a result.  Why would a coach making very little money and devoting enormous amounts of time and energy into coaching continue to stay around when the parents involved are doing everything to make his life miserable? Perhaps it’s for this reason that we all need to take a step back and appreciate all that goes into coaching, rather than try and run coaches out of town who don’t coach the way we would like them to with our kid.

www.drstankovich.com

As a sports fan, there’s nothing worse than getting ready for another long season when you already know before the season starts that your team will be in the basement – again. Some professional teams are annual losers, including the LA Clippers (who still need to prove they will be a winner this year), the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Columbus Blue Jackets to name a few (AHPS).  Of course, there are plenty more professional sport franchises that excel in futility, so today’s blog goes out to you, the die-hard true fan of an annually terrible sports team.

Unlike the front running fan, the die-hard usually starts each season with a glimmer of guarded hope, thinking this year might be different – that those years worth of high draft picks will finally pay off.  Unfortunately, be it due to economic hardships of the team, poor scouting & development, poor on-field management, or any other conceivable reason (injuries?), the team ends up out of the race within the first few weeks of the season.  It is at this point where the loyal fan must “suck it up,” deflect criticism from friends and co-workers, and somehow find a way to carry on through the rest of the season when about the only excitement he will have will be to think about what possible first round draft pick his team can get in the upcoming draft.

For you Celtic, Laker, Patriot, and Yankee fans, can you only imagine how horrific this sports experience is compared  to yours?!

Have no worries fans of bad teams, the Sports Doc is here to help by providing some quick tips to help you get through the season(s):

• Make a joke out of it. It is widely accepted that humor is a great tool to help ward off stress, so make it a point to let your guard down and roll with the punches whenever possible.  Face it, your team is rotten, so you might as well have a good laugh, right?!
• Don’t take it to heart. Sports fans are famous for taking ownership of the teams they follow, often cultivating a personal identity tied to the team.  While this is interesting for sport scientists to study, it’s typically not good to put so much value into your team that your overall attitude and well-being are greatly mediated by your team’s success (or lack thereof).  Instead, roll with the punches and remember that it’s just a game.
• Don’t be a fair weather fan.  Yes, there is no doubt it’s tough to continue to follow a crummy team, but it’s also a very admirable and worthwhile pursuit.  Sure, it would be easy to be like LeBron James and just pick all the good sports teams to follow, but you don’t want to be like that do you?!
• Take even more pride in your team when they lose. If you really want to confuse the people in your life – and have some fun amidst a trying season – buy some new gear and wear it proudly.  Sure, it probably won’t help your team in the standings, but it’s a fun way to deal with losing.
• Balance your team’s success against other important things in your life. Remember, sports are entertainment, so no matter how long the season becomes with ongoing losing, try to keep it in perspective by balancing sports against your family, friends, and other important people and things that you like to do.

Whether you follow good teams or bad, be sure to check out our always-expanding product line of sport performance products only at www.drstankovich.com